I mean from the Empress Katherine's dogs."

The Court-marshal who had lost the sixteen pounds of flesh admonished
the long lieutenant in a whisper to hold his tongue, for he was
exposing himself and putting out the whole company. The long
lieutenant, passed his hand over his brow, and softly promised to obey.

"Let us hear you further," urged Clodwig, and Sonnenkamp continued,--

"It is fortunate also for barbarous races, when they possess certain
families who present them, in historical continuation, the various
decisive points in their career, and when new families become
distinguished by courage or wisdom, and form, as it were, a new
dynasty."

Clodwig observed that the sweat stood in great drops on Sonnenkamp's
forehead, and said, with great friendliness,--

"It might be said that the distinctive prerogative of the nobility was
to unite culture and courage; one should never be separated from the
other. I hope you will understand me aright when I say that the titles
of nobility perpetuate the remembrance of the gifts, the acquisitions
of transcendent genius in a former time, and they have now become an
inherited right, or rather involve an inherited duty. The nobleman is
the free human being, uniting in himself the gifts of nature and
fortune, and preserving a certain chain of connection through the ever
changing generations of men. Nobility is a kind of public office to
which a man is born. The nobleman should act out his own nature, but is
bound at the same time by the conditions of history."

"May the wine freeze in my body, if I understand a word of what he is
saying," said the long lieutenant to the Court Marshal, who was trying
hard to fight off the sleep which, contrary to all the rules of the
treatment, was stealing over him. He suddenly woke up and said,--

"Yes, yes; you are perfectly right; but do keep quiet."

"You yourself," said the Marshal, "must reverence an honest pride in
the virtues and bravery of our ancestors. The man who walks through a
gallery, from whose walls the pictures of a long line of progenitors
look down upon and watch his steps, receives a life-long impression;
through his whole life he is followed by the watchful eye of his
ancestors."

"True, true!" cried many voices.

"And what follows from that?" asked Clodwig. "Let us return to our
original question."

"Just what I am doing. Why should not these historical conditions be
constantly reversed?"

"Quite right; that is